The UA received a $1.1 million grant to study the biology underlying the connection between type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. BIO5 member Dr. Yann Klimentidis is a lead researcher on the study, which will utilize publicly available health and genetic information from databases across the world, covering at least 650,000 people.
Some people go on diets to lose weight, but what if there's a diet that could help save your life? Researchers at the UA, led by BIO5 member Dr. Donato Romagnolo, say eating a "Mediterranean diet" reduces the risk for cancer.
Medical researchers who connect diabetes with obesity think the liver plays a key role. University of Arizona biomedical scientist Ben Renquist is measuring neurotransmitters produced by the liver that can cause blood sugar levels to become unstable.
Despite slowdowns in research suffered by universities around the world due to the pandemic, the University of Arizona has experienced solid growth in the commercialization of university inventions. In the last fiscal year alone, Tech Launch Arizona, the commercialization arm of UArizona, received 274 invention disclosures – 11 more than the previous year. TLA also executed 124 licenses and options for university, filed 391, and saw 100 patents issued. In addition, the university launched 17 startups, which not only bring UArizona inventions to the world for the public good, but also create jobs and economic impact.
Working to prevent Type 2 diabetes, researchers at the University of Arizona are collaborating with scientists from Washington University in St. Louis, the University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern University to study the connection between fatty liver, the brain, and metabolic disease.
The Department of Physiology in the College of Medicine - Tucson announces the appointments of Dr. Claudia Stanescu, as associate department head for education, and Dr. Erika Eggers, as associate department head for research. Dr. Eggers, associate professor in the Department of Physiology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering and BIO5 member, leads an active research group that studies synaptic physiology in the retina and the defects that develop in early diabetes.
Dr. Donna Zhang, associate director of the UArizona Superfund Research Center and BIO5 member, has been awarded an eight-year, $7.3 million federal grant to advance her research. Dr. Zhang will use the grant to continue her two-decades of research to determine how a family of proteins can be harnessed to prevent or treat arsenic-induced lung cancer and Type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Horacio L. Rilo, an international pioneer in islet cell transplantation for the treatment of diabetes, has been appointed professor of surgery and director of Cellular Transplantation at The University of Arizona Department of Surgery. Dr. Rilo joins the UA to establish a clinical islet transplant program to treat patients with severe type 1 diabetes or with painful chronic pancreatitis.
